You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Welcome to the eG Forums!

These forums are a service of the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancement of the culinary arts. Anyone can read the forums, however if you would like to participate in active discussions please join the society.

we use three different airbrush sizes, a small paasche external mixer, a bigger gun usually used for car paint jobs, and a wagner airless. since my first career was in graphic design, i used to do airbush illustrations and photo retouching long before photoshop became an option. the thing that john mentioned when he uses his small airbrush is called "overspray" and it occurs if your pressure level is way to high, all you have to do is turning the pressure down a bit. i like to work with the paasche because it gives me a great control over what iam doing. i can do color transitions, lines, polka dots, and even use some paper maskings for cool marble like effects. the big guns are way to big for that kind of control. if i find the time i do some demo shells, so you caan see what i mean :-)btw. a few weeks ago we had the advanced chocolates course at callebaut with jp wybauw. it was just cool. i put the pics up as soon as i find some time...

cheers

t.

Scneich, it would be amazing to see your spraying demo's. I have been a member of Egullet for not quite a year now and have learned so much from you. I don't know how many times I looked at your lab set-up and your Selmi demo photos. So informative!

So just letting you know there's another one keeping an eye on this thread for your demo! (No pressure at all!!!)

tomdarch: I've done that recipe from the book and I just used a plain ol' Wagner sprayer. I use those for pretty much everything I do (which doesn't include needing to be able to do detail work for cakes or chocolate molds). The wagner makes a velvety surface if the object to be sprayed is frozen and you don't hold the sprayer too close to what you're spraying. If you do 2 or 3 very thin coats and stick it back in the freezer for a couple minutes between coats instead of doing one thicker coat it will have that more coarse look to it.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

I would like to buy the sprayer you recommended, Wagner W 180 P set. But I have some questions. Can I use it alone or I have to buy a Compressor additionally? And the effect of spray is rough or fein? Thanks a lot!

And looking forward to seeing your photos!

we use three different airbrush sizes, a small paasche external mixer, a bigger gun usually used for car paint jobs, and a wagner airless. since my first career was in graphic design, i used to do airbush illustrations and photo retouching long before photoshop became an option. the thing that john mentioned when he uses his small airbrush is called "overspray" and it occurs if your pressure level is way to high, all you have to do is turning the pressure down a bit. i like to work with the paasche because it gives me a great control over what iam doing. i can do color transitions, lines, polka dots, and even use some paper maskings for cool marble like effects. the big guns are way to big for that kind of control. if i find the time i do some demo shells, so you caan see what i mean :-)btw. a few weeks ago we had the advanced chocolates course at callebaut with jp wybauw. it was just cool. i put the pics up as soon as i find some time...

tomdarch: I've done that recipe from the book and I just used a plain ol' Wagner sprayer. I use those for pretty much everything I do (which doesn't include needing to be able to do detail work for cakes or chocolate molds). The wagner makes a velvety surface if the object to be sprayed is frozen and you don't hold the sprayer too close to what you're spraying. If you do 2 or 3 very thin coats and stick it back in the freezer for a couple minutes between coats instead of doing one thicker coat it will have that more coarse look to it.

Thanks! What would you say is the minimum amount of chocolate to put in the container? Do you need to take any specific steps (e.g. warming the container) while spraying? Did you modify the chocolate mix for spraying from the Alinea recipe?

I fill it enough to make sure I get through the job, acknowledging that I will be tilting the sprayer as I us it, so I have to have enough to stay above the intake line. As far as warming - I bring my cocoa butter or chocolate mix down to just above room temp, and lately I've taken to blasting my nozzle with a heat gun to ensure smooth outflow. I don't heat my storage bottle because the spraying goes very fast and its not necessary.

I have also used Wagner paint sprayer quite a bit. I preheat my oven to "warm" and as soon as preheated, turn it off. Then put my Wagner sprayer in to warm it up (including the container) . I use the chocolate at 90-95F. I have done cakes and larger chocolate items (both frozen before spraying to get the velvety look) and never had any problems with clogging. The spray seemed pretty course to me and sprayed a pretty broad area so there was lots of over spray. It does give an excellent velvety texture. I got an air brush, because I didn't think that I could get the control that I wanted with the Wagner prayer.

I'm making a cake for a friend's birthday, and I would like to top it with a thin layer of marzipan sprayed with greenish chocolate. I don't think I'll be spraying chocolate on a very frequent basis, so I'm looking for a simple and cheap solution. The simplest I can think of, is using a manual spray bottle. This probably won't give me much of an even spray, but hopefully it will suffice to colour a 15cm disk of marzipan (somewhat evenly) green? I do have a recipe for the green chocolate solution for spraying, but I guess that is composed with a paint sprayer in mind? Do you think I will have to thin it out to get the solution through a manual spray bottle?

Interestingly, there's a formula for a cocoa solution to be sprayed with a manual spray bottle in Friberg's pastry book; this recipe uses light corn syrup (60 ml), warm water (720 ml) and cocoa powder (55 gr). Is there a way to tweak that recipe to give me a green chocolate solution?

I'm making a cake for a friend's birthday, and I would like to top it with a thin layer of marzipan sprayed with greenish chocolate. I don't think I'll be spraying chocolate on a very frequent basis, so I'm looking for a simple and cheap solution. The simplest I can think of, is using a manual spray bottle. This probably won't give me much of an even spray, but hopefully it will suffice to colour a 15cm disk of marzipan (somewhat evenly) green? I do have a recipe for the green chocolate solution for spraying, but I guess that is composed with a paint sprayer in mind? Do you think I will have to thin it out to get the solution through a manual spray bottle?

Interestingly, there's a formula for a cocoa solution to be sprayed with a manual spray bottle in Friberg's pastry book; this recipe uses light corn syrup (60 ml), warm water (720 ml) and cocoa powder (55 gr). Is there a way to tweak that recipe to give me a green chocolate solution?

Any thoughts or advice are greatly appreciated everyone

I've tried it but could not get it to work. It would not go through the sprayer.I added some cocoa butter; same non working.

I've also seen Chef Friberg's recipe; if that works please let us know!

ejw50: Yes, I'm afraid that the chocolate solution might be to viscous to get through the spray bottle properly...

I'm mainly looking for colour, so it might be a better option to use greenish marzipan... I wanted a very light, green colour on the top of a strawberry cake. Thanks again, I'll experiment a little bit and let you know how it turns out! Another option would be to simply use the marzipan as is; I think the slight off-white colour would work as well, as long as I put some other decorations on top. Anyways. Thanks, guys!

I just got the Walmec gun. I am too busy with chocolate orders so hopefully Thursday I can go and get a compressor for the gun. A big thanks to Lana and to Kerry for all their input and experiences. Now of course I am overwhelmed with what I need to do and know for this new piece of equipment. It will be a big asset to my business. I currently use the universal 360 by Badger but it can't handle the viscosity of chocolate. It does work well for the cocoa butter.

I bought a can of PCB colored cocoa butter, I tried to use it but the chocolate got stuck to the mold, I read the direction and it told me to warm up the can before using it, so I tried that as well and the same result.
How can I warm up the spray can and how do I know it is the right temperature???

I bought a can of PCB colored cocoa butter, I tried to use it but the chocolate got stuck to the mold, I read the direction and it told me to warm up the can before using it, so I tried that as well and the same result.How can I warm up the spray can and how do I know it is the right temperature???

You can warm it in the microwave with a few short blasts, just try not to melt all of it. Shake it well before using. If you are using it with a paint brush, just make sure you are spreading it in fairly thin coats and allow it to set up at least 30 minutes to an hour in a 60-70F environment. If you are using it in an airbrush, you can warm the airbrush with a heat gun or hair dryer before spraying, and rewarm the airbrush and your portions of cocoa butter between sprays. If you keep a hairdryer or heat gun handy, you should be able to keep it warm in whatever you dispense what you need into.

If I'm reading your post correctly and you're talking about the canned ready-to-spray stuff, don't microwave it. That could get ugly real fast. Just set it in a container of warm water. The colored cocoa butter that's not sprayable in the plastic bottles can be microwaved in short bursts.

Edit: Not that you asked but, if you're buying the canned cocoa butter "velveting spray" to spray into chocolate molds, you're spending way too much money. There are much less expensive ways to go about doing that.

Edited by Tri2Cook, 26 May 2009 - 03:13 PM.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

It doesn't need to be too warm. Temperature precision isn't really an issue in this case. Just put some body temp or so water in a container, put the can in the container and let it sit for a few minutes. When it sounds fluid if you shake it and it will spray evenly you're good to go. Tempering isn't an option so you don't have to worry about that. The only potential danger would be heating it enough to explode the can which won't happen in a glass of warm water but very possibly might in a microwave.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

I have never use the ready to spray color cocoa butter, so I don't know how it works, I don't know if you ever work with coloring molds, but you want to make sure that your chocolate is in temper ofcourse and that the room temperature is not too hot, the only time I had problem with the color stick into thhe molds was when the room was too hot and the chocolate even if in temper, took too long to set into the molds.

I bought a can of PCB colored cocoa butter, I tried to use it but the chocolate got stuck to the mold, I read the direction and it told me to warm up the can before using it, so I tried that as well and the same result.How can I warm up the spray can and how do I know it is the right temperature???

I bought a can recently and have used it to seal nougat bars. It seems to work and is cleaner than trying to brush on melted cocoa butter. Hope it is suppose to be used like this because it works well.

But there are airbrushes they sell with heated heads for working with chocolate as seen here. So I suspect that as long as it doesn't blow air that is too warm it won't be a huge problem.

Kerry mentioned this heated head airbrush some time ago and I wrote for info but didn't get a response (what's with these companies not answering requests to purchase their products???!!!)Has anyone else followed up on it? Any luck? I'd love more info and PRICING!Here's the link:http://www.aerographe.com/page7e.htm

I suspect I'll be buying an airbrush in the near future, Christmas, if I play my cards right--this information had been very helpful.

I have been "guilty" of using the PCB aerosol cans of coloured cocoa butter--I know! $31.00 CDN per can. That stopped when my partner found out how expensive they really are.....

I've always "made" my own coloured butters with dry powders (just the three primary colours) and the cheapest c. butter I could find (Kessko, around $12.00/kg here), and in the bottom of one of my toolboxes I found a tool I had bought a loooong time ago and had forgotten about.

It's a very simple tool, usually used to apply nougat laquer in the days before aerosol cans. All it is is two little tubes, a fat one, and a thinner one. You fold the tubes so they meet at a 90 degree angle, immerse the thin tube into whatever you want to "paint", and blow on the fat tube. Cave-man technology, but it works Ok., takes a bit of effort though. Can't tell the difference between that and the PCB when I use it on my gemoteric domes.

But there are airbrushes they sell with heated heads for working with chocolate as seen here. So I suspect that as long as it doesn't blow air that is too warm it won't be a huge problem.

Kerry mentioned this heated head airbrush some time ago and I wrote for info but didn't get a response (what's with these companies not answering requests to purchase their products???!!!)Has anyone else followed up on it? Any luck? I'd love more info and PRICING!Here's the link:http://www.aerographe.com/page7e.htm

I called them in France and English was an issue! They told me to send an email and I did and "no response". I might get my colleague, a french pastry chef to call for me to get the info I want.

I have 4 airbrushes/sprayguns for chocolate - the Badger 250, another Badger I can't recall the number of (that I bought because it could splatter - theoretically) and Iwata (never worked worth a shit with chocolate) and now the Fuji.

The Fuji is the only one I suspect I'll ever use again.

Hi Kerry,

Do you still think the Fuji is the best option for chocolate/colored cocoa butter spraying?Are you still happy with it?